Rudy Backs Turner; Long Yawns

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who dropped out of a 2000 race for the U.S. Senate, endorsed Rep. Bob Turner in the three-way race for the U.S. Senate.

Giuliani has flirted with running for statewide office over the years and entered the race to run against then-First Lady Hillary Clinton in 2000, but he dropped out after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

He considered running against Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in 2009 or maybe governor, but didn’t do either. And of course, there was his troubled run for president in 2008.

So now Giuliani is backing Turner, the Republican Party darling last year after he won in the upset for the Queens-Brooklyn congressional seat that was open when disgraced Rep. Anthony Weiner resigned.

“Bob Turner is the definition of a citizen legislator who took his lifelong business experience to Washington,” Giuliani said in a statement. “Now he is running for Senate for the same reason: to put our country back on a path toward job growth and prosperity.”

Turner is seeking the GOP nomination at the June 19 primary, as is Manhattan attorney Wendy Long and Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos.

David Catalfamo, a Long spokesman and a top aide to former Gov. George Pataki, didn’t sound impressed with Giuliani’s endorsement, citing Giuliani’s endorsement of Mario Cuomo in 1994 against Pataki.

“With all due respect to the Pataki strategy, which we know a little about, you have to win the primary to win the general,” Catalfamo said in a statement. “Today’s endorsement doesn’t move the needle for team Turner, ask Mario Cuomo. Nor does reliance on a statistically insignificant advantage in name ID achieved primarily in an area not reflective of the larger Republican electorate.”